Is the United States falling behind in the global race for scientific and engineering talent? Are U.S. employers facing shortages of the skilled workers that they need to compete in a globalized world? Such claims from some employers and educators have been widely embraced by mainstream media...

The title of this conference, "Seismic Shifts: The Economic Impact of Demographic Change," might suggest that economic "earthquakes" lie ahead, but while the metaphor is geological, I do not think it was intended to be catastrophically geological. In fact, it is quite appropriate to visualize...